Maintaining Weight Loss Permanently

Essential Strategies To Maintain Weight Loss

• Adhere to and enjoy the lifestyle and the healthy eating plan you adopted during your weight loss regimen. This point, of course, assumes that you lost weight with a healthy and a sustainable diet program (see: How To Choose Weight Loss Diets That Work ).
• Keep a journal of the foods you eat and the times you are most vulnerable to cravings. Not all successful weight losers keep a journal but for some it is a "lifesaver".
• If you have stabilized at a weight above your set goal do not give up. You may have to accept that your body prefers a certain weight beyond which you would constantly be struggling. It is better to lose some weight than to revert back to what you were before.
• Restrict some foods, such as fast and fried foods and foods high in fat and sugar. Restricting some foods may seem unfair. Think about it, however. If you were alergic to peanuts you would not eat peanut butter. If you have a propensity to gain weight do not eat fatty and sugary foods. It is that simple.
• Do not skip meals and especially breakfast. Breakfast is an essential meal that will keep you from having cravings later in the day. The following article discusses this point at length: Breakfast Helps Maintain Your Weight Loss.
• Eat more than 3 meals per day. Make sure to include healthy snacks in your meal plan.
• Drink water instead of juices or sodas. If you feel like having something else then water, have a glass of skim milk. As well, have one glass of water before your meal. I does fill you up.
• Continue to limit the quantity of food you place on your plate and subsequently eat.
• Eat slowly. It takes your brain 20 minutes to recognize the fact that you are full!
• Weigh yourself often. Contrary to popular belief, weighing yourself couple of times per week or even every day was found very important for weight maintenance. Frequent weighing allows one to detect any weight gain and immediately address the issue before it gets out of hand.
• Do not watch TV for long periods of time. There is a large number of food commercials on TV. Many of the foods look so delicious and tempting that this may cause you to raid your fridge one too many times.
• Keep physically active. This is a must! Walking, taking stairs, whatever as long as you keep moving. If you find you honestly do not have time to leave the house read: How to Lose Weight Without Dieting and Exercise . You will be amazed how many calories you can expend with ordinary house chores.

Use any or all of these strategies and you will find that finally, for the first time you are successful at maintaining weight loss. Share your story!

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Be Smart - Understanding Food Labels and Nutrition Facts

Grocery shopping and reading labels are a delight for some and a real headache for others. Regardless of how you feel about them, determining whether a particular food product fits into your healthy diet plan has become easier. In addition to listing the amounts of macronutrients (fat, protein and carbohydrate including fiber), a food label may also indicate vitamin and mineral content of the product. This provides good information to help a consumer determine if a particular food product meet his or her nutritional needs.

What is on A Nutrition Facts Label?

Food labels are designed to help consumers make healthy food choices. In 1990, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act went into effect. The USDA and the FDA developed these guidelines so that consumers would have access to useful nutritional information to help make smart choices.

But how do you make sense of a food label?

According to the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, all packaged food products must contain the following information:

• Common name of the product
• Name and address of the product's manufacturer
• Net contents in terms of weight, measure or count, and
• Ingredient list and Nutrition Facts

Components of a Nutrition Facts panel

Nutrition Facts Common nutrients, such as total fat, cholesterol, and sodium, are required fields. Other nutrients, such as potassium and Vitamin K, are optional and not required to be listed. Each package must identify the quantities of specified nutrients and food constituents for one serving. It is important to note the following: 1 g of fat = 9 kcal 1 g of protein = 4 kcal 1 g of carbohydrate = 4 kcal 1 g of alcohol = 7 kcal Serving Size Serving sizes are standardized to make for easier comparison among similar food items. They are expressed in both common household and metric measures. It is always important to pay attention to a serving size. For instance, a serving of chocolate chip cookies is typically 2 pieces. Hence, if you eat 4 pieces, you will need to double the amount of nutrition content listed on the label. Calories (kcal) Calories provide a measure of how much energy you obtain after eating a portion of food. It is always important to find out the total calories. Many consumers are surprised to find that a fat-free product is not necessarily low in calories. Similarly, a sugar-free product is not always low in Calories or low in fat. Nutrients listed Total fat, saturated fats, cholesterol, total carbohydrate (including fiber and added sugars), protein, vitamins A and C, calcium and iron are required on the label. Other nutrients are optional and may be listed at the discretion of the manufacturer. In addition to total calories and total fat, a few other nutrients relevant to heart health are important to pay attention to when reading a label. These include saturated fats, cholesterol and fiber. Effective Jan 2006, all labels should also include trans fatty acids. Percent Daily Values Percent Daily Values provide an estimate of the percentage of a nutrient from one serving in a typical 2000 kcal diet. Daily Reference Values Footnote This footnote reminds consumers of the daily intake of different foods depending on their own nutritional needs.

Reading Food Labels - the Bottom Line: Food Labels and Nutrition Facts enable you to compare products based on key ingredients. When comparing products, focus on those nutrients that are important to you.

• If you are concerned about your weight, you should compare products based on BOTH calories and fat.
• If you have heart disease or high blood pressure, you should focus on the amount of total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium. Choose products containing less than 20% Daily Values for fat, cholesterol and sodium.
• If you have diabetes, you should pay attention to the amount of carbohydrate, sugar added as well as fiber.

Written byPatty Poon, M.Sc. and copied from  HERE